Kyle Bleaker
A junior officer in the Army of Revolution, Kyle Bleaker has seen his advancement come through a mixture of talent as well as being in the right place at the right time. Having survived the Revolutionary War, he has become a vocal supporter of the new leadership, while also commanding one of their forward recon posts in the Detroit Wastelands. History Kyle was born in 2259 to poor parents living in a small scavenging community in Michigan. From an early age, Kyle learned to shoot in order to protect himself and his family; he showed promise as a marksman at a young age, and proved to be capable of taking the harsh steps needed to protect others. Attacks by wild animals as well as raiders were a constant threat, and by the age of twelve, Kyle was already taking an active part in protecting his community. All his skill was no use against a disease outbreak in the summer of 2274 that left half of the community, including his parents, dead. Left to fend for himself, and with little to keep him there, Kyle struck out on his own, hiring himself out as a scout and mercenary. For the next four years he roamed across the state in the employ of whoever would take him, few of which were overly concerned about his youth. During this time he refined his marksman skills, while also learning a fair deal about tracking and hunting. Almost inevitably, his wandering brought him towards the Detroit Wasteland. At this stage, Kyle was working guard duty for trade caravans, helping to protect them against the various threats along the road. In 2278, the caravan he was a part of was heading towards the ruined city when it was attacked by a large, well-organised force. Rather then killing Kyle and the others on-site, however, they ordered them to surrender so they could be captured alive. Fearing for the worst, Kyle found that these raiders were members of an organised military force who called themselves the Army of Revolution. While the revolutionaries had attacked the caravan largely to loot it for supplies, they were also on the lookout for potential recruits. Kyle and the other guards were given the choice of joining the Army; while unspoken, the implication of what would happen if they refused the offer was clear. Realising that he had no choice, Kyle agreed in the hope that he might be able to afford an escape further down the road. Instead, Kyle found himself being drawn into the Army of Revolution. At first, it was the simple sense of belonging that the Army offered. Having spent so much time on his own working for whoever he came across, the idea of being part of something bigger appealed to him. As rough as the Army was, its members did have a certain sense of camaraderie that helped draw him and many other new recruits in and make them feel like they belonged and had worth. The second was that he found himself agreeing with elements of their philosophies. While not a human supremacist by any means, he couldn’t help but see the point in their plans to unify the city and bring order to it. His early missions into the ruins helped underscore the point; he saw around him the ruins of a once-great metropolis, bought low and now infested with raiders, scavengers and other low-lifes. The various communities of the Detroit Wasteland did not seem interested in rebuilding or even cooperating with each other, and were instead more focused on their own conflicts with each other. They had carved up the city into their own little domains, and refused to venture beyond them. Kyle quickly distinguished himself as a scout, utilising the skills he had learned in the wilderness and quickly adapting them to the ruined city. During this period, the Army of Revolution were discretely probing the ruined city, looking to get a better measure of its inhabitants and their strengths. While they were not yet ready to return to the city proper, they were still laying the groundwork for a potential future invasion. Kyle helped find possible avenues for an incursion, while finding potential staging grounds or forward bases that the army would use. As the 2280s dawned, Kyle was becoming more and more active within the city proper. Now operating as a part of an independent scouting unit, he was being employed in a number of different roles. Not only were he and his team still engaged in scouting operations, but they were now engaging in limited conflicts with raiders and other hostile forces. These battles served two purposes; the first was, of course, to help the Army of Revolution clear a secure path for potential future operations. The second was to help assess not only their potential enemies, but also the capabilities of their own troops. His most important mission for the Amy of Revolution came in early 2282. Reports had reached the Army’s leadership of an industrial settlement in the Flint River region, one that was apparently manufacturing weapons. Seeing that this would be a vital asset to any forthcoming campaign, the Army’s leadership were eager to verify its existence and capabilities. Given his success so far as a scout, Bleaker was tasked with leading an expeditionary team to find the truth behind this settlement and determine its value to the Army. What they found astounded them. The settlement, known as the Foundry, was a fortified, industrialised community, heavily regimented and highly productive. After making initial contact, Bleaker was able to verify that they were making weapons, and willing to enter into a trade deal with the Army of Revolution. This initial contact would lead to a loose alliance between the two groups, with the Army providing the Foundry with raw material and food in exchange for weapons. Because of his role in establishing initial contact with the Foundry, Bleaker was also included as a part of their trade delegations, albeit as just a simple soldier protecting their ambassadors. In truth, he was tasked with performing a more detailed recon of the Foundry, slipping away where possible to learn more about the community, its people and its capabilities. In turn, this information was used by the army to aid their negotiations, providing them with a more complete picture of their allies. As the army rearmed, Kyle was rotated back to the city proper to resume his scouting operations. Now he was roaming further into the city, discovering more about the various communities and threats present, including their capabilities. More importantly, he was mapping out potential routes for an invasion of the city, with approaches towards key targets that would provide the best combination of mobility and protection from potentially hostile forces. All of this information was used by Martin Kruger as a part of his SAVAGE HAMMER plan for taking control of the city. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, Kyle was reassigned again to a pathfinder unit that served as advance scouts for the main body of their attack force. His unit were responsible for identifying the defences around Scrap Iron City and effectively neutralising them, allowing the quick capture of the settlement. While he was not involved in the attack of the city proper, Kyle’s squad were involved with containing any runners going for help or warning the other settlements. This allowed the Army to maintain the initiative in their offensive and quickly move on to their next targets. The second stage of the operation proved to be even more dangerous, as Kyle was one of the groups tasked with finding a safe route towards Park Lane and eventually Grand Central. This was a dangerous assignment, as it meant skiting around the territories of two of the largest and most dangerous gangs in the Detroit Wasteland, the Wrecking Crew and the Scrap Dogs, the latter of which were already seen as being an openly hostile force. Their path also needed to avoid the hazard-strewn downtown district, in essence leaving only a narrow corridor through which attacks on Park Lane would be possible. While the path discovered by Bleaker and his soldiers was used in the initial approach towards Park Lane, as the Army of Revolution bogged down in the district, they were forced to spread out, which bought them into conflict with other forces in the region. Bleaker was amongst those caught up in the morass, forced into running battles against not only the Park Lane Safety Patrol and their hired mercenaries, but also raiders and scavengers. As the campaign wore on, Bleaker’s squad suffered losses from both combat and other hazards, resulting in a large turnover. In some cases, other squads were folded into his to keep up numbers and preserve operational integrity. The entry of the Black Skull Company into the war only exacerbated the situation. Now the Army of Revolution were fighting against a coordinated but also decentralised opposition that seemed to be everywhere at once. In an effort to staunch the bled and hopefully waylay their enemy, Bleaker took it upon himself to act as a scout hunter, trying to intercept enemy observers, runners and messengers. While this did help slow their enemies, it was more of a case of postponing the inevitable. When Bleaker received the withdraw order at the end of the campaign, he didn’t question the move, rather seeing it as being an inevitable outcome and the best way to preserve some of their strength. Being only a junior officer, Kyle was spared from the army’s post-war bloodletting and reorganisation. He did, however, openly support Martin Kruger after he replaced Olivia Milton in command of the Army of Revolution, seeing him as being a better alternative. After a short period of recuperation, Bleaker was given a new assignment, command of an outpost along the southern edge of the Army’s occupied territories, one that would be vital to Kruger’s plan for the future. This outpost served two functions. The first was a forward staging area from which the Army would base recon and exploration operations aimed at gathering more information about their enemies and future targets, while also observing their movements and activities. The second was to act as a clearing house for information gathered by Kruger’s new network of covert operatives who travelled between settlements, disguised as traders. As the outpost became more established, this would include some degree of analysis based on reading of the intel received and collating it with their own observations in the field. Not fully happy with a life behind a desk, Kyle would occasionally take to the field himself. One such occasion, in January 2287, was to have far-reaching consequences, even if he didn’t realise it at the time. Leading a recon patrol, he was ambushed by a group of Super Mutants roaming the area. He attempted to disengage, only to find himself cut off by a second group. His troops, mostly rookie recruits, were cut down, leaving Kyle alone to try and find cover from the Mutant marauders. Taking shelter in a partially intact building, he found that he was not alone. A mercenary soldier had also been caught out by the mutants, and was trying to wait for them to pass. Now she was stuck here as they circled the area, hunting for the pair of them. After some initial hostility, he and the mercenary, who introduced herself as Kara Stinson, agreed to work together to help keep the pair of them alive and affect an escape. Initially, their plan was to sit tight and wait for the mutants to pass. However, as it became clear that they were still hunting for them, the pair were forced to keep moving, trying to weave their way through the ruined buildings to try and find an escape route. When that failed, they dug into a still-intact basement to try to lose their pursuers and take shelter against a rapidly closing in snowstorm. The pair would spend the night there, hunkered down and trying to stay alive, including opening up to each other as a way to stay alert against the worst. Kyle admitted that he had very little life outside the Army, while Kara discussed her own isolation and unwillingness to engage with others. Riding out the storm, the pair of them emerged the next morning, making a break for it through the snow and past the Super Mutants. Having made their way to freedom, the pair agreed to go their separate ways, but also took the time to thank each other for their help. Personality Kyle is not the stereotypical Army of Revolution soldier, bucking the trends in a number of different ways. First and foremost, he holds no biases against Ghouls, which is contrary to the usual human-supremacist doctrine of the Army. He doesn’t believe that they should be exterminated, nor that the human race needs to be ‘purified’ like many of his comrades in arms. Likewise, his dislike of Super Mutants is not based on their being inhuman, but more of the simple threat that they represent, especially given that he is yet to encounter a single non-hostile example. Finally, Kyle does not seek a return to some mythological version of pre-war America. Rather, he sees the Army as being the best option for peace, stability and unity in the Detroit Wasteland. Despite these deviations from the norm, he is still loyal to the army and its goals. Kyle tries to carry himself as a professional soldier, one who does the decent thing and ties to look after his men while completing his objectives. He prefers mobility over stand-up fights, and will adapt his tactics to the situation. Kyle has a keen eye, but that has not prevented him from getting in to trouble or being attacked by unexpected forces in past. Appearance Kyle’s features could be best described as ruggedly handsome. He has blue eyes and brown hair that is kept clipped short. While he doesn’t have a beard, he is usually unshaven due to the realities of the wasteland. He is fit, with an athletic but muscular form, although he also sports more than a few scars, the results of a life lived in the wasteland and as a soldier. Kyle has no tattoos or other distinguishing marks, which aids him on those occasions when he needs to operate discretely or behind enemy lines. Equipment Due to his role as a scout, Kyle eschews heavy armour in favour of mobility and concealment. He rarely wears anything that could directly identify him as an Army of Revolution soldier, instead preferring simple clothes, often topped off with a coat to protect him against the elements. This allows him to blend in, and pass for a simple wasteland scavenger or a wandering merc. His preferred primary weapon is a foundry-built semi-automatic sniper rifle, and he usually carries a pistol as backup. Category:Characters Category:Michigan